Inside 72: Halfway to a Gross

[bc56]

Red Zone Building

Jade gives the knife back as soon as she's done with it. "It's about the size of a large coat, but it can be folded up." The unlabeled door opens onto a main room. The doorway where the thugs are fighting with the skeletons is visible on the far end. In the middle is a junked car on cinderblocks and a few miscellaneous containers, toolboxes, trunks, and the like, clustered around a makeshift firepit. "Let's try searching those boxes down there. Just keep low and don't make too much noise."

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

Michalson could feasibly try to chase this thing out of the city by following it, but it'd just come back. Besides, his chances of following something that floats aren't great with his leg.

"Well, this is a fine mess," he says, turning back to Ava.

[Deathkeeper]

Forbidden Knowledge - Hodgepodge Street

Someday this area will stop getting hit with things. Heather was only popping over here to visit her friends at PMP and then relax with a book. There's such nice places to read in Inside. Riverside does too but it's actually faster to zap herself to Inside via tree than walk to Riverside. And she doesn't want to start planting trees everywhere. People are suspicious of faerie trees enough as it is.
So the gaiad was just sitting around reading when she eventually notices everyone sprinting away to her left.
"Oh, sheesh. Not again." She stands up and tucks the book under her arm. Is she going to have to sprint for it too, or should she try to help against whatever they're hurrying away from? Faeries are pretty durable. Heather squints down the street, trying to see what all the hullaballoo is about...

[Recaiden]

Wandering Into Trouble

"What kind of a map or detour? Would this work? I've got a navigation app on my phone." He gets his phone out and shows the app. He doesn't know if the satellite GPS thingy works from here, though. It at least provides a connection to a map of the right Nexus. And if Sekhmet has a smartphone, she should have it too.

The astronaut looks over the app.
"Not that kind; it's too small. Something ❖︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎."
"Or, come through with me. My world reaches everywhere; you can find the Nexuses for you."

Down below, a spider slings a strand of webbing up towards their mushroom. It doesn't quite reach. But you can bet they'll aim better next time.

[Zefir]

Red Zone Building

Jade gives the knife back as soon as she's done with it. "It's about the size of a large coat, but it can be folded up." The unlabeled door opens onto a main room. The doorway where the thugs are fighting with the skeletons is visible on the far end. In the middle is a junked car on cinderblocks and a few miscellaneous containers, toolboxes, trunks, and the like, clustered around a makeshift firepit. "Let's try searching those boxes down there. Just keep low and don't make too much noise."

Red Zone Building

Karl appears confused by the description. His first image was that of an armor like knights use to wear. He can barly imagine the item but he guesses that a coat with many mechanical parts would be easy to notice. Since he noticed that he is not the best in preventing noise he just nods and heads for the boxes left of the place they came from. He'll search through anything, even boxes that might be to small. it's unlikly he will find it so any item that fit's the discription will be shown to Jade with a "Pst!" to get her attention.

Just in case the Skeleton are trained in their weapons, no experts but on a level you would have local guards. When a skeleton got a certain amount of demage he disapears, teleporting back to his homeplane for regeneration. They won't come back until they recover and be summoned again.

[5a Violista]

[Forbidden Knowledge – a barmaid on a jog]

Why does everything seem to happen to her in the morning while she is out for a jog after a long night at work?
After a long night of increasingly-handsy drunk patrons, the very tired June goes out for another jog to burn off all this frustration. Just because you're drunk and the barmaid is flirtitious doesn't mean she wants you to touch her!

While fuming, she senses a very loud and confused crowd up ahead. Her mind is alreadly overworked and overstimulated and exhausted – this qi training is helping, but it's going too frustratingly slow, in her opinion.

So, she takes a detour to go around the crowd.

Unfortunately, one of these heresy spirits was following someone who was headed directly away from the busier part of the city this morning, and – looking to find another group of people – it latches on to her and starts following her instead. It waits for the right time to draw her attention, since she is rather distracted and absorbed in her thoughts, right now.


[Meanwhile! Forbidden Knowledge – near Venus's Church]

Venus, a gaiad fae-deer-nature-person, is also unlucky enough to be up and about in the morning before news of these elemental-spirits gets around.

She gets up early and quickly leaves 'her' church...three people showed up to start praying and worshipping there...and, to be honest, Venus feels like people worshipping her/at her place-of-rest is incredibly awkward. Especially while she's still there. Why are they coming to this random formerly-abandoned church so early in the morning?

Venus is definitely getting out of there before people notice her.

She puts on a dress and sneaks out the back, to avoid the people at the altar and trees and pews and flowers and whatever else.

Unfortunately, her decision to leave will likely end in an unfortunate encounter for her.


[Forbidden Knowledge – Mahou Shoujo]

Harley, taking a break from watching the baby Manja, came to Inside only to discover a new thing going on. Taking advantage of her experience as an investigator, she asks around and learns the gist of what they are, and notices their incredible similarities to the witches and other monsters thst she regularly hunts.

Having promised to not willingly infect herself with another possibly-dangerous mutagen thing, Harley has decided the best avenue to keep her promise is to blindfold herself. Especially since just seeing them is enough for...whatever. Not wearing the blindfold yet, since she was staying away from crowds where one of these spirits might show up.

Thinking on different blind animals that she understands, she came up with a couple different ways she could still 'see' – scent, sound, etc – but still keeps her eyes. Just in case there's an emergency or too many people around and she needs to see.

Harley transforms.
She draws a sword and spins with its tip near the ground, and a mirror of falling water appears encircling her. Harley tosses the sword into the water, it darkens, and her reflections reach towards the mirrored surface. Darkand masked figures emerge from the water, pull at her, trying to pull her into the falling water. As their hands pass over her, her clothes change into a witchlike outfit. Finally, the water finishes falling, leaving only mist and droplets, and all the dark figures disappear with it – except for one. It stands behind her, reaches towards her face, and caresses her face...when it's done, Harley is now wearing a black blindfold.


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

In Venus's experience, old books either have a sweet, slightly floral scent or an old-mold scent, depending on how well they were taken care of. So a musty book smell that doesn't smell like mold isn't one that she recognizes.

Unfortunately, it's dark. She wishes June was here, because she would be perfectly fine in the dark.

Recognizing a throne, and not much else, she goes towards it. "Hey, are you also a skeleton?" she asks it. "I met your friend up there."


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

Heading into enclosed spaces is actually pretty dangerous. With no guarantee that he'll be able to find the person or that they're even down there at all, voluntarily climbing down into the sewers is just a deathtrap. So many people stupidly die after climbing unprepared into sewers and caves.

June looks down into it, looking for a sign that someone is right there and able to be helped.

Sadly, the monster has already likely scuttled away by the time June stops focusing on the hole and starts looking around for someone to report this to.

[Shadowcaller]

[Two Detectives]

Seeing this as a permission to speak, or at least that he didn't need to focus fully on his job, Ava is quick to reply. "A relatively common occurence I assume? Not the, ah, being itself but the crime. Looking past that I've never seen anything like that in my entire life, it or... whatever gender they might identify as was only causing a disturbance, correct? Just trying to keep things in perspective here."

Pennilan's Tavern

Jaahlyn's ears are actually human-like, her eyes are weird instead by being all black. "Sticks you say? The name sounds similar somehow but I can't quite place it." She pauses a moment. "You worked in Riverside, correct? I might have seen his shop at one point but I never went inside. Toys are admittedly not something I've used in a very long time but if they were alive... well, that'd be something quite else." The satyr chuckles. "But he sounds like quite the wizard then. Something I once strived to be." She gestures up at her horns, or perhaps her eyes. her tone goning completely dry. "Obviously it didn't work out."

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Well, maybe you'd seen his work with one of your clients? Or maybe you did a job for Malechenar? I think we got invited to one of their parties once." Jim ponders. He keeps himself from wincing; she's clearly not happy with her current situation.
"If nothing else, you are capable of magic beyond the understanding of mortals. But it does sound like you got an awful lot of strings attached." He tries to keep positive.
"So um, that sounds like you're saying you weren't ah, originally intending to be here in the No Shoes club either. Where're ya from originally?"

Forbidden Knowledge - Hodgepodge Street

Wow it looks like there's a whole bunch of weird glowy things that everyone is moving away from, those look pretty weird but not-
Heather stops, looking around with her ears twitching.
"Huh? Hello. What? Why? Brain spiders? Wowie, okay then." And then Heather bounds off, a spear in her hand looking to find...a hardware store? Oh, she's after gasoline.
This will likely end badly.

[bc56]

Red Zone Building
Jade starts at the other end of the containers and works towards Karl.
If the skeletons have the training level of city guards, they're better fighters than the thugs, who are completely untrained. They have better equipment too. They can easily keep the thugs occupied, or dispatch them if they prefer.

It takes a bit of searching to find an object that might be what Jade's looking for in a trunk. It's a turquoise blue garment made from bulletproof cloth and covered in circuitry on the inside.


Necropolis of Kysimax
The skeleton(?) doesn't respond. Something crinkles under Venus' hooves as she approaches. If only she had a light source, she could see what was going on here. She's got all that fae magic, couldn't she make some light that way?


Forbidden Knowledge

Many people flee the creatures, or are curious about them. One is running towards them, sword ready to fight. A woman in bright purple armor, with long, wavy purple hair charges one of the heresy elementals. "Corruptor! Die!" She says, but it seems like she's not especially sure of herself. Her sword is sharp and magical though.
And of course, this is opening her up to all the nasty business that comes from looking at those things.

[Reinholdt]

[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church]

Little does Harley suspect, but there's a dashing rogue on a rooftop watching her. Dressed in a black suit and matching cape billowing despite the lack of wind, he stoically watches her transformation. Watching being a questionable word, because across his mask is a heavy red silk blindfold. This makes him legally distinct from other mysterious tux wearing magical girl stalking guys.

It also makes it really impossible for him to see what's going on. To the point where this next leap from rooftop to rooftop, USUALLY really dramatic and ULTRA COOL, causes his foot to catch on the lip. He tumbles down, yelping slightly as the Blind Mask hits the ground on his back in front of Venus. "I'm... okay...." Re- the Blind Mask moans as he sits up. At least it wasn't a particularly far fall. The pile of cardboard boxes he conveniently landed on really did wonders though.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering into Trouble

"That last word didn't translate." Prumathe realises he doesn't know if any of his words haven't translated, since the astronaut hasn't mentioned any. Hopefully words like 'trust', 'love' and 'honour' will translate, at least, though Prumathe doesn't quite want to test it just now. He doesn't have a choice but trust this random spaceman, so Prumathe bites his lip and looks out toward the spiders, and ensuring everyone else is safe. "We'll... I'll go with you. It's gotta be better than hanging around here."

Forbidden Knowledge

Amongst the people trying to avoid the heretic elementals is a hooded and cloaked figure. They're quite short, and mostly going with the flow, taking advantage of the crowd and the small amount of panic to empty the pockets of those around her. She finds herself near the edge of the crowd and breaks away, a little curious about what's going on. Now she's away from the crowd, she heads towards the heretic elementals, with the aim of seeing whatever is causing all this panic.

[5a Violista]

[Forbidden Knowledge - Hodgepodge Street]

As it happens, June starts jogging down Hodgepodge Street, and happens to be jogging past a hardware store.

Then! The spirit decides that is the best time to draw attention to itself. Not only can it get the person it's following, but now that they're in front of a store it could get all the people who are opening up the store or who are there early. Plus! It's a moderately important street, so it can also get everyone else around too. Better than waiting until a smaller street.
The spirit-elemental makes a scream of 'Help' right in front of that hardware store, sounding like someone being attacked. That's one sort of thing that people are likely to notice and look for, it thinks.

And, it works.
June looks over her shoulder, to see what's going on and if there's anything she can do to help, or if it's best to just run away.
She sees the swirly elemental-spirit, and gets a sudden rush of memory and secret passion. Her mind was already overwhelmed, that the sudden influx of memories is enough to stop her in her tracks and get her to feel pain.


[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church]

Harley turns to look at Blind Mask, to see what happened and...
...
Right. Blindfolded. Sound and scent and maybe even heat or electricity or magnetism or whatever...they aren't really good enough to 'see' what happened without a lot of practice, especially because she wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing.
Sure, he says he's okay but Harley kind-of needs to double-check because he doesn't exactly sound okay.
Harley lifts up her blindfold slightly, takes a look at the situation, and breathes in, and sa--


Before Harley manages to say something, Venus gets to it first. "Omigosh, are you sure?" Since Blind Mask is blindfolded, he wouldn't be able to see that she's got deer ears or flowers in her hair or a deer lower body, or that she has red hair and freckles, or anything, but he might be able to hear her four feet against the ground as she gets closer, to check how he is. Plus, she definitely smells like flowers. Like...imagine a roselike perfumey smell with a little spice added in the center of it, plus a separate metallic tang and a light sugary scent. Basically, floral. "What are you doing, jumping off buildings blindfolded like that? That could have been dangerous!" Unless, she thinks, he's one of those blind superheroes. "Wait, you're some kind of superhero, aren't you?"


Harley holds her breath. Yeah, she's glad that he's okay, but, like...is she supposed to interject? Say something? She hasn't even been acknowledged yet, so...


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

what
no
Venus is 100% totally normal human, even though she doesn't look it.
Using fairy magic would be cheating.

After spending a significant amount of time struggling to see and waiting for her eyes to adjust, Venus gives in. She sighs.
Venus runs her hand down her hair, finds a yellow ball inflorescence, and plucks that cluster.

She holds it in front of her, and makes each of its little flowers start glowing with an illusory light. There, that should be good enough to see.

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

"I wouldn't call it common. Not even 'ere." Michalson shakes his head. "It... seems to be puttin' false memories in people's brain-boxes. It tries to put one in mine, but I stopped it. I don't know if it's doin' it on purpose, either. Seems to be just... happenin' around it."

[Recaiden]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

Heading into enclosed spaces is actually pretty dangerous. With no guarantee that he'll be able to find the person or that they're even down there at all, voluntarily climbing down into the sewers is just a deathtrap. So many people stupidly die after climbing unprepared into sewers and caves.

June looks down into it, looking for a sign that someone is right there and able to be helped.

Sadly, the monster has already likely scuttled away by the time June stops focusing on the hole and starts looking around for someone to report this to.

There is no one to be seen down the manhole. No trails, dropped objects, or other clear clues. But there is something to hear - stone splintering, an animal shrieking, sudden silence where a moment before there had been echoes.

Unlike when June was last here, the surroundings seem ... deserted.

[Wandering into Trouble]

"That last word didn't translate." Prumathe realises he doesn't know if any of his words haven't translated, since the astronaut hasn't mentioned any. Hopefully words like 'trust', 'love' and 'honour' will translate, at least, though Prumathe doesn't quite want to test it just now. He doesn't have a choice but trust this random spaceman, so Prumathe bites his lip and looks out toward the spiders, and ensuring everyone else is safe. "We'll... I'll go with you. It's gotta be better than hanging around here."

The astronaut tilts their head, even leans a bit to the side, considering how to rephrase it.
Eventually they decide it doesn't matter.

After all, right now spiders are climbing up a silk strand towards them.

"This way."
"We've got to get out of here to help at all." Prumathe agrees.
The astronaut leads them across the top of the mushroom, to a place where there is a weakness in the air; a round, cracked blackness. A way out, allegedly. As the astronaut looks into it, the glassy black swiftly turns red. They place a hand on the edge, their glove seeming to bend and twist as it passes through the portal.
"It's open. Go!"
After the other three go in, or they've lingered for about 8 seconds, the astronaut hops in themselves.

[Shadowcaller]

[Two Detectives]

"...peculiar. Glad I didn't get too close then. I suppose that would be filled under invasion of mental privacy? If it's doing that to entire crowds that would be highly illegal. Reminds me of a case of a company projecting commercials right into people's dreams which resulted in several lawsuits." Ava looks in the direction the being took. "But how did you stop, ah, it? Since I'm going to assume it isn't a person at this point. It's a bit hard to tell around here if I'm going to be honest so I don't like making assumptions."

Pennilan's Tavern

"Almost, the fourth tower. A group of warlocks working for big M. Or perhaps they're the small M now that they lost their castle. They call a lot of beings like me to do all sorts of jobs. Then I also did some jobs for another fey but that didn't work out at all." She shakes her head, seemingly not too pleased with that job.
Her thoughts don't seem to linger on that topic however as when Jim asks where she's from, she smiles. "Oh, I love telling people this. But I was actually a noble at one point. Had a big fancy house, servants, everything. That's how I could spend so much time learning spells you know? I didn't need to lift a finger to get food or even to get dressed." She leans back in her chair, looking more relaxed than he can recall seeing her. "Then again, I can barely remeber any of that now as it was literary lifetimes ago so take my human life with a pinch of salt. It's almost like trying to recall back to the time when you were a baby. More like a dream than reality at this point. It's all gone now of course. Even my queendom, Ictican, doesn't exist anymore which means that me and my brother probably are the only Icticans left in existence, which is pretty unique." Jaahlyn looks back to Jim as her attention seems to have drifted off while she was talking about herself. "I did look pretty much like I do now though. Minus the horns, the eyes... the legs, and probably a lot of muscle mass. I sure wasn't doing any hard labor back then."

[bc56]

Forbidden Knowledge - Purple

The purple-haired, purple-armored woman dispatches the one paper creature and starts heading for another. But she gets distracted by the memories flooding into her mind. She drops to one armored knee, gasping for breath, her face flushing. Whoa, that's intense. And just like the last owner of that memory, she wants to keep it secret. But it's definitely taken her out of the fight for a bit. Actually, she looks like she could use some help getting back on her feet.


Necropolis of Kysimax

In the light of the flowers, the room becomes clear. Stone shelves laden with parchment scrolls line the walls, and it is one such scroll that Venus stepped on. There is indeed a skeleton on a throne, presiding over the room, hand outstretched as if to receive something. And there's an engraving on the base of the throne. "Master Kysimax seeks his sword." Under the engraving, a relief is carved in the shape of an elaborately decorated sword.

[Zefir]

Red Zone Building
Jade starts at the other end of the containers and works towards Karl.
If the skeletons have the training level of city guards, they're better fighters than the thugs, who are completely untrained. They have better equipment too. They can easily keep the thugs occupied, or dispatch them if they prefer.

It takes a bit of searching to find an object that might be what Jade's looking for in a trunk. It's a turquoise blue garment made from bulletproof cloth and covered in circuitry on the inside.

Red Zone Building

The skeletons got order to distract them so they avoid cutting them in half, which doesn't mean they go easy. They just avoid killing.
Karls not realy sure what copper wire on the inside will do. A ring mail must be at least from iron or better material. Either way. He shows it to her and if she seems to agree he will try to throw it over as afts as possibe. After all they will be able to leave when it is the thing they search for.

[Recaiden]

[Forbidden Knowledge]

An old-fashioned wooden sailing ship passes over the city, high in the sky. It doesn't even slow down on account of the chaos below. But there is motion, a glint of light, as someone jumps overboard.

They fall faster and faster. It looks like they're coming down right in front of that purple woman. Until finally, they impact a heresy elemental with a flying kick and follow it up with a slash from a sword - more than enough to cut a collection of papers into scraps, and what's worse, the blade is coated in a magical acid that will likely corrode and ruin what writings are left behind.
Then they stand there, a slight figure, all gold, armored in shining asymmetrical machinery, face hidden behind a bird mask, golden skulls on their belt-
"You looked like you needed help."

A heresy elemental can't hurt you if you already know everything.
That's the theory.
But in practice...they can remind you, rather strongly. It's one thing to have known the awful, inedensian temptation that they look to their grave. It's another to feel it for yourself.

---

Someone sneaks unseen, unheard, unimagined - through the streets.
Their name is 'Blair'. They are a second generation C1 hive stalker, an alien infiltrator with psionic powers of non-detection, design refined after many many failures in Ell.
They are suffering from a bite from a devil-snake, that leaves them hungry for forbidden knowledge. It draws them towards the elementals, though they don't understand why.
The madness leads them to pluck a page out of the air-
-reading it desperately. This is awful. Horrible. Unimaginable. Just considering it makes their antennae twitch.
They don't stop reading.

[bc56]

Red Zone Building

Jade nods. That's what they're looking for. She takes it from Karl and slips it on over her clothes. It forms into a more rigid, armored shape around her as she puts it on. She motions towards the vent where they came in. Time to go.

Forbidden Knowledge - Heresy Fighters

Oof. Along with that one memory came a bunch of other related memories. And is that a tear coming to the purple warrioress' eye? No, she shakes it off and clambers to her feet, the remnants of painful memories still clinging to her expression. "Yeah, I could use the help." She readies her sword again. "You with me?"

[Deathkeeper]

Forbidden Knowledge

There's a loud twang and the nearest elemental goes up in flames. Heather, a local heather/dogwood gaiad steps out from the store with an enormous bow in her hands, strung with a modern cord and a can of gas tied to her side. She seems to be very resolute in not looking at it which is hard when you're using a weapon that requires aiming.
"You gotta get out of here! And don't look at that thing!" she calls out.

Pennilan's Tavern

Jim looks unsure, but eventually opens his mouth.
"Well, I imagine that getting stuck as a universal handyman isn't exactly the best state of forever after that...but. Well. The horns and legs and such are cute at least. You didn't get turned into a hippo-fairy or something." It's hard to try to make something positive out of 'and then I got stuck as everyone's servant forever.'
"So you have a brother who also got some kinda immortality? That's, well I guess that could be good or bad, huh?" Being an only child, Jim isn't really the foremost expert on sibling relationships. But he's sure immortality and being a fairy can make things complicated. "Was it....well the kind of stuff that's been going on around here?" that being, if she got zapped into being fey through sheer bad luck.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Into Trouble

Prumathe won't wait for the astronaut, heading through the portal as soon as he's told it's OK. He'll look around to see where he's got to this time.

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

Michalson drums his fingers on his thigh. How much should he tell her? He doesn't like talking about the Rites of Interdiction. People will get the bright idea to use them. Then again, it's not like they'd know where to start unless he shares the basics. Which he won't.

"I'm treatin' it more like a natural disaster than a criminal at this point. Or an unnatural disaster, possibly. I was able to suppress its projection of unwanted memories. First on myself and then on it. It's a... technique I learned when I was younger. It didn't seem to like that."

[Zefir]

Red Zone Building

Jade nods. That's what they're looking for. She takes it from Karl and slips it on over her clothes. It forms into a more rigid, armored shape around her as she puts it on. She motions towards the vent where they came in. Time to go.

Red Zone Building

Karl looks at it kinda confused, but then shrugs and let's it happen. After all his best stuff is kinda simular , but more deadly. He then points back at the direction they came for and mimics like he was going up the vent. His questioning expression might tell her he is not sure if he can go back that way including his shaking of his head.

[Reinholdt]

[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church]

Harley turns to look at Blind Mask, to see what happened and...
...
Right. Blindfolded. Sound and scent and maybe even heat or electricity or magnetism or whatever...they aren't really good enough to 'see' what happened without a lot of practice, especially because she wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing.
Sure, he says he's okay but Harley kind-of needs to double-check because he doesn't exactly sound okay.
Harley lifts up her blindfold slightly, takes a look at the situation, and breathes in, and sa--


Before Harley manages to say something, Venus gets to it first. "Omigosh, are you sure?" Since Blind Mask is blindfolded, he wouldn't be able to see that she's got deer ears or flowers in her hair or a deer lower body, or that she has red hair and freckles, or anything, but he might be able to hear her four feet against the ground as she gets closer, to check how he is. Plus, she definitely smells like flowers. Like...imagine a roselike perfumey smell with a little spice added in the center of it, plus a separate metallic tang and a light sugary scent. Basically, floral. "What are you doing, jumping off buildings blindfolded like that? That could have been dangerous!" Unless, she thinks, he's one of those blind superheroes. "Wait, you're some kind of superhero, aren't you?"


Harley holds her breath. Yeah, she's glad that he's okay, but, like...is she supposed to interject? Say something? She hasn't even been acknowledged yet, so...

[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church]

Oh no. The Blind Mask was supposed to shadow Magical Girl Harley without her knowing he was there. Understandably, given that he put on a mask that blinded him, he didn't notice that she noticed he was following her. He has double failed already! This is just the worst. At least he can be content in his ignorance, not knowing that she's seen him. Though she probably called him here in the first place, he just thought he was being sneaky about showing up. He wasn't.

"Yes, yes. Quite sure. This is nothing." Reinholdt winces, but manages to scramble to his feet somehow, slightly approaching the scent of flowers. It's a very nice scent. At least he didn't land in the garbage. At that point, he'd just have to quit and try again a new day. Some days are just bad and you need to reset.

Superhero? "Ah... uh... yes. Sort of. That's right. I'm the Blind Mask and I'm here to fight the loose Pieces of Paper." Beware school children! "Umm... you didn't happen to see which way a beautiful young magical maiden went, did you?" Rein asks Venus, feeling on the ground until he finds his dapper cane weapon and picks it up.

[5a Violista]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

First the park was weird and now this area is deserted? Well, if there were an emergency, June could see everyone evacuating, but there's nothing immediately obviously going on. The park being pretty deserted made sense, because of the darkness. Not here, though.

Besides, he starts to think again, that wasn't even the first weird thing. Unless he got lost and somehow came back here, he was pretty sure this area isn't in the same relative position as it usually is. Granted, he doesn't know this area as well as he should, and this city frequently likes moving streets around to mess with him, so it's possible...

"Hey! Officer? Anybody? Something's definitely going on!" and he looks back to the manhole to call down: "Anybody down there? Hello!"


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Oh. Sword.
She should've taken it with her, Venus thinks, instead of leaving it back there in the lock.

"I hope that one out there is good enough," she informs the skeleton.

Venus turns around to go grab the broken sword and bring it back here, and give it to the skeleton.


[Forbidden Knowledge (hardware store)]

"I...I already looked at it!" June calls out.

To June's eyes, Heather looks really weird. Like heather and dogwood and bones and spirit all entwined and wrapped around each other.
She's actually kind-of used to that, though, so it doesn't exactly surprise or scare her or anything. In fact, she takes it as a sign that she can trust her, a little.

Still holding her head and waiting for her headache to pass, June darts away from the elemental spirit and to somewhere closer to the store front. "What should I do, then?" simce she already saw it.


[Forbidden Knowledge – Mahou Church]

It's probably all Harley's fault, anyway. She told him she was going to come here and thr importance of being blindfolded and so on, but she didn't inform him how she was going to see; namely including scent. He must've assumed she was going to use some sort of blindsense and as long as he stayed out of its range then he could have gone completely undetected. Unfortunately, it's hard to trail someone who can smell you coming as well as a bear can.

Harley lowers the blindfold again. Actually, it's probably safer if he gets left behind, because although these memory spirits appear to be docile, she has no idea how dangerous they can get when they start fighting back.
Besides, leaving him behind means he can swoop in last-minute to save the day if anything goes wrong, which is a massive tactical advantage.

And so, without saying anything, Harley turns around and goes on thr prowl again for a heresy elemental. She feels like there's one just ahead...


Meanwhile
Seeing him wince isn't a good sign...but Venus doesn't say anything. After all, she'd pretend she was perfectly fine, too, if that happened to her. So it's only fair to not call out someone else.

Venus laughs at the image of fighting loose pieces if paper, blowing in the wind.

"Um...no, I haven't," she says. Venus looks around, trying to find a magical maiden and hoping that just wasn't a lazy attempt at flirting. "What does she look like?"
... Oh, right, he can't see. "I mean, how would I recognize her?"

[Reinholdt]

[Forbidden Knowledge – Mahou Church]

I don't think Rein's poor decision making is Harley's fault. He has blindfolded himself after all.

Reinholdt's attempts at flirting are much more extreme. Either lazier or with some actual effort! "Umm... she's probably wearing a witchy like costume, but modern witchy, actually really stylish and incredibly cool and I think it really suits her. And she might have a sword on her. I think." That should help clear things up for Venus!

Or at the very least, narrow things down considerably.

[Earl of Purple]

Forbidden Knowledge- Forty Snips Hair Salon

It's not a particularly busy time, shortly after most people have their lunch break, so one of the hairdressers steps out the back and heads to have his. The guy in question is quite young, a well-groomed young man with pale skin and dark purple eyes. His hair has an undercut, shaved on the right side and left long to brush against his shoulder. He's wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, with a pair of black trainers on his feet. He's also wearing a nametag, with the word 'Phobodore' written on it, so that's probably his name. A cutthroat razor has been pushed into the back pocket of his trousers, and he's got a small bag slung over one shoulder. He reaches in and takes out a packet of cigarettes and a cheap plastic lighter, glancing up as he starts to light one up.

[Shadowcaller]

[Two Detectives]

Michalson drums his fingers on his thigh. How much should he tell her? He doesn't like talking about the Rites of Interdiction. People will get the bright idea to use them. Then again, it's not like they'd know where to start unless he shares the basics. Which he won't.

"I'm treatin' it more like a natural disaster than a criminal at this point. Or an unnatural disaster, possibly. I was able to suppress its projection of unwanted memories. First on myself and then on it. It's a... technique I learned when I was younger. It didn't seem to like that."

Forbidden Knowledge

There's a loud twang and the nearest elemental goes up in flames. Heather, a local heather/dogwood gaiad steps out from the store with an enormous bow in her hands, strung with a modern cord and a can of gas tied to her side. She seems to be very resolute in not looking at it which is hard when you're using a weapon that requires aiming.
"You gotta get out of here! And don't look at that thing!" she calls out.

Pennilan's Tavern

Jim looks unsure, but eventually opens his mouth.
"Well, I imagine that getting stuck as a universal handyman isn't exactly the best state of forever after that...but. Well. The horns and legs and such are cute at least. You didn't get turned into a hippo-fairy or something." It's hard to try to make something positive out of 'and then I got stuck as everyone's servant forever.'
"So you have a brother who also got some kinda immortality? That's, well I guess that could be good or bad, huh?" Being an only child, Jim isn't really the foremost expert on sibling relationships. But he's sure immortality and being a fairy can make things complicated. "Was it....well the kind of stuff that's been going on around here?" that being, if she got zapped into being fey through sheer bad luck.

[Two Detectives]

"A dangerous technique I'm assuming." If all of Intersection had a technique like that she was pretty sure she'd known about it through her research. So that led to the assumption that either just Michalson knew about it, or just a selected few other officers who had been taught. "Anyone else that know of it? Since it looked like it could be used to contain this disaster, or at least protect the civilians."

Pennilan's Tavern

"Well... I work with the dead so I know what the alternative is, at least in my world." Just ceasing to be was hard for her to imagine and that seemed to be the fate of all mortals. "It's honestly not bad, and its not like it's forever either. I just need to work off my debt that's all." No matter how many thousand years it might take. "But yeah, there is my brother too. So it's not like I'm alone either. He's satyr too and we hang out occassionally. He's just busy with another project and haven't really been to the nexus yet. He, ah, got turned into a fey at the same time as me. We performed the summoning ritual together, see? The same deal too. So no matter what has happened we've always had one another even if everything else has changed around us."

[SwordGirl SwordWoman]

One of the elementals has assumed the exaggerated form of a humanoid, its legs and arms are far too long and its body constantly shifting between humanoid female and male features, seemingly depending on who sees it, is wandering down one of the largest streets of Inside. While it's apperance was odd, it was behavior which truly made people around it uncomfortable as it could suddenly sneak up close to someone and put its hand on them and then just move away when they spot it.

[bc56]

Red Zone Warehouse

Jade see's Karl's reluctance. Oh. She understands. He's not sure he can make it out of the vents. They'll have to find another way. Maybe one of those rooms they passed by has a window? She heads back that way, beckoning Karl to follow. The office should have a window, right? If any room does, it probably is the one. But she stops just outside the door. There's talking inside. "How quickly can you get here? We're under attack, if you still want to buy that suit, you should hurry and beat these skeletons before they take it themselves. No, I don't know why they want it. They haven't said. Fine. Just get here as soon as you can."

Necropolis of Kysimax

Seriously, Venus? Do you think the skeleton wants a rusty, old, nearly-broken sword? It's not a problem to retrieve it and give it to the skeleton, but nothing happens. Maybe that's not his sword? Has she seen any other swords lying about?

Forbidden Knowledge

One person, running from the elementals, is a fae/succubus hybrid, with golden, crystalline hair. She turns down an alley to get away from them, and runs right into another one. Stumbling backwards, she gets a good look at it before dashing away. Whatever those things are, they freak her out! What even are they?
Dang, now she's curious.

[Recaiden]

[Wandering Into Trouble]

Prumathe won't wait for the astronaut, heading through the portal as soon as he's told it's OK. He'll look around to see where he's got to this time.

Prumathe is on a large flat rock. The rock seems to be moving at a fair speed; the air rushing through his hair as he's carried along.
The sky, like the rock, is red in its endless expanse above and below. No clouds or horizon interrupt the expanse, but there are structures in the air, translucent stalagmites and columns that must be of unfathomable size, to move how his eyes say they are moving.
In the distance, black specks swarm like gnats between patches of redder red.
After several seconds, Prumathe comes through after Prumathe.
Then the astronaut.
Then there isn't a portal behind them any more.
"Your Nexuses will be up there." The astronaut raises a hand to point, and then, having arrived here, returns their tools to a sling on their back.

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

First the park was weird and now this area is deserted? Well, if there were an emergency, June could see everyone evacuating, but there's nothing immediately obviously going on. The park being pretty deserted made sense, because of the darkness. Not here, though.

Besides, he starts to think again, that wasn't even the first weird thing. Unless he got lost and somehow came back here, he was pretty sure this area isn't in the same relative position as it usually is. Granted, he doesn't know this area as well as he should, and this city frequently likes moving streets around to mess with him, so it's possible...

"Hey! Officer? Anybody? Something's definitely going on!" and he looks back to the manhole to call down: "Anybody down there? Hello!"

It gets weirder.
As he realizes that it doesn't make sense for things to be like this, details emerge from the scene. Doors broken down. Shattered glass whose sharp edges hold torn scraps of fabric and drops of blood. Holes in the walls. A street already in ruin - but not for too long now.
As if he's seeing this place for the first time with fresh eyes.
It wasn't like this yesterday. It wasn't even like this a minute ago - was it?
Maybe this isn't the right way to see the street either?

When he looks and calls back at the manhole, June will see a clawed red-orange hand beckoning him down, and a worried voice calling back.
"Hey! Keep quiet!"

[Forbidden Knowledge - Heresy Fighters]

Oof. Along with that one memory came a bunch of other related memories. And is that a tear coming to the purple warrioress' eye? No, she shakes it off and clambers to her feet, the remnants of painful memories still clinging to her expression. "Yeah, I could use the help." She readies her sword again. "You with me?"

The other fighter nods.
"Are you ready? This is dangerous work."
They turn (moving wrongly) to survey the scene. Where are the most elementals, who will be most in need of help and yet still able to be helped?
"How much do you know?"